Nawlins

[El Gordo]

Excellent post up there, Sweder. Very touching. I managed to miss it first time round.

Fortunately, we didn't miss New Orleans first time round. M and I were there in 1996. I've mentioned a couple of times a great holiday we had in the southern US, driving round Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

We spent just 2 or 3 days in New Orleans, arriving on the coast road - the one that now seems to have been wiped out by Katrina.

Yes, it's a remarkable city. Or should I say "was"? Only time will tell just how much has been physically destroyed, but you sense that a chunk of its heart may have been irreplaceably wrenched out.

We spent a couple of evenings doing what tourists do there - just hanging out in the blues clubs absorbing the atmosphere - as rich and dense as the gumbo. I have to say though that we found it a slightly threatening place. Like many US cities, there seemed to be a very uneasy truce between the tourist shop window and the unvisitable sectors. It makes me think of the shanties round Johannesburg. I remember filling up with petrol at a gas station on the edge of New Orleans city centre. I paid and was walking out when the guy behind the counter asked me which way I was driving. I told him where we were heading, and how. He just shook his head. "Turn round and go back. Use the freeway to get in and out of this city. No other way is safe."

I also remember talking to people about the danger of flooding. We visited the amazing St Louis Cemetery where we were told that coffins were laid to rest in the mausolems above ground because if they were buried, they would eventually float to the surface on the high water table.

But a fascinating place without doubt, and truly unique. We can only hope that the rebuilding of the levees and the city infrastructure won't attempt to paper over the deep cracks. Let's hope they grasp the opportunity to solve some of its underlying problems while they're at it.